Mau Mau reports

I am concerned at the media reporting of the issue of compensation to Mau Mau detainees. The latest (your report, 6 July) is typical in referring to “groups of Kenyans attacking British officials and white farmers”.

The number of the latter killed could be counted on two hands.

What is usually omitted are the thousands of innocent Kikuyu civilians – men, women and children – killed, often most brutally, by the gangs.

In no way does this excuse the appalling treatment of the detainees, which is a permanent stain on the British colonial administration.

I write as a former young subaltern actively engaged in this campaign who witnessed the aftermath of these attacks, believing that the historic record should be set straight, if only for the younger generation.

James McCarthy

Ettrick Road

Edinburgh